Reports of Skinny Jeans’ Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

Guilty as charged, and I admit it was wishful thinking, but numbers don’t lie. Skinny jeans make up 54 percent of new full-price jean styles in retail stores, according to trend forecasting firm WGSN—far more than any other denim silhouette.

And I really can’t say I’m that surprised, because almost every lookbook that comes across my desk still includes skinnies. The style has been going strong since the mid-2000s, and while other styles may be more popular with the fashion-forward set on the sidewalks outside runway shows in New York and Paris, the masses still want form-fitting denim.

According to this article, flares have surged in popularity to 11 percent of denim merchandise in stores, but that’s still nowhere close to skinnies, and it looking like they’re already waning in popularity:

Street and runway styles pushing wider jeans have yet to convince the populace to switch. For instance, a recent trend in ’70s clothes sparked a spike in flared jeans. The latest entrant is high-waisted flares cropped above the ankle, popularized by designer Rachel Comey. Fashion show catwalks last fall were chock-full of baggier denim but the style was less prominent just one season later, according to WGSN’s runway show analysis.

Despite my love of all things seventies and my enthusiasm for the resurgence of the wide-legged trend, I also still hang onto my skinnies. They’re too easy to pair with a tunic or kaftan to get rid of. Long live skinny jeans!